The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Russia's former defence minister and its military chief of staff for allegedly attacking civilian targets in Ukraine.
The court is accusing Sergei Shoigu and General Valery Gerasimov of war crimes and the crime against humanity of inhumane acts.
The judges consider there to be reasonable grounds to believe that the men were responsible for "missile strikes carried out by the Russian armed forces against the Ukrainian electric infrastructure" from 10 October 2022 until at least 9 March, 2023.
"During this timeframe, a large number of strikes against numerous electric power plants and sub-stations were carried out by the Russian armed forces in multiple locations in Ukraine," the court added.
The move obligates the court's 123 member states to arrest the pair and transfer them to The Hague for trial if they set foot on their territory.
Regular readers will remember that in March 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin on suspicion of unlawful deportation of children and unlawful transfer of people from Ukraine to Russia. It has restricted which countries Mr Putin can visit.
It also issued a warrant for Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Russia's commissioner for children's rights, on similar allegations.
https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-russia-news-putin-nuclear-live-updates-kyiv-12541713
